Marlabs Wins 2026 ISG Paragon Transformation Award for gategroup Implementation

Client-validated case study recognizes AI-enabled menu development platform that transforms gategroup’s document-driven menu creation and frees chefs to focus on their craft

New York, NY, United States, September 29, 2026 -- Marlabs, a leading AI consulting and transformation provider, today announced it won the 2026 ISG Paragon Standout Award for Exceptional Individual Contribution in the Transformation category for its work with gategroup, a leading airline catering and onboard retail company.

The Paragon Awards honor client-validated case studies in the business services and technology sourcing industry. The Transformation category recognizes the fundamental transformation of an organization or a key business function, and every nomination must be validated by the client before it is considered.

Airline catering operates in a highly complex, time-sensitive environment: millions of meals, hundreds of kitchens, thousands of ingredients, 24/7 operations in a regulated environment where allergen control and special-meal compliance are mission-critical.

Marlabs and gategroup rebuilt how airline menus are developed, replacing the legacy SACS-based workflow of copy-paste assembly and spreadsheet tracking with a single, AI-enabled digital workspace. The work began with stakeholder interviews and design-thinking workshops with gategroup’s chefs, commercial teams and procurement, then moved into a sprint-based build. The platform reads inbound airline briefs across multiple file types, extracts the requirements and generates a complete first-draft menu spanning every dish category, cycle, class and service.

The change has been felt in the kitchen. Chefs now work in one workspace with version history, live collaboration and role-based dashboards, spending less time assembling documents and more on culinary craft and the passenger experience. Commercial leaders benefit from greater visibility into active menus across the organization, and standardized workflows and unified data models are replacing location-specific spreadsheets across gategroup’s global footprint.

Built-in AI detection flags potential allergen and special-meal issues, and AI-generated menus remain subject to review and approval by culinary and commercial teams.

“Innovation cannot come at the cost of stability,” said Sandro Bregante, CIO of gategroup. “Marlabs has been a trusted technology partner for nearly two decades, bringing a deep understanding of our business and operational requirements. Their safety-first approach, built on clear governance, robust policies, appropriate guardrails, and human oversight, was exactly what we needed in a business where allergen control and special-meal compliance leave no room for error. By streamlining manual processes, the platform allows our teams to spend more time focusing on menu quality, culinary creativity and the passenger experience.”

WATCH: Fireside Chat with Thomas Collins and Sandro Bregante

“This is what transformation looks like when it holds up over years, not quarters,” said Thomas Collins, CEO of Marlabs. “We did not hand gategroup a dashboard and walk away. We rebuilt how a global operation develops passenger menus, then kept engineering against it as the business changed. Winning a Paragon Award matters because the client validates the case study. gategroup’s team experienced these results firsthand.”

About Marlabs

Marlabs is your trusted AI consulting and transformation partner with 30 years of experience solving modern challenges with a proven track record of delivering complex technology solutions to Fortune 500 clients across financial services, life sciences and healthcare, manufacturing, telecom, media, technology, and other industries. Headquartered in New York with 14 office locations globally and employing over 2,200 AI, data, and digital solutions experts, Marlabs focuses on operationalizing AI as a core business capability, enabling organizations to move from experimentation to execution with solutions that deliver sustained, quantifiable value. To learn more about Marlabs visit the Web and LinkedIn. 

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Contact Info:
Name: Gary Bird
Email: Send Email
Organization: Marlabs
Website: https://www.marlabs.com/

Video URL: https://vimeo.com/1145198085

Release ID: 89204629

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